Betty Jo McNeece Receiving Home (BJMRH) has

been in operation since 1992, initially operated

under Imperial County Probation.

July 2006 - Imperial County Behavioral Health

Services took over the daily operations of the

facility.

July 2013 -Imperial County Department of

Social Services assumed responsibility of the

daily operation and oversight of the facility.

Assembly Bill 403 (2015) – Designed to improve

California’s Child Welfare System and outcomes for

youth in foster care.

Assembly Bill 1997 (2016) – Reduced the number of

days children can stay in Shelters from 30 to 10 days.

Together AB403 and AB 1997 comprise Continuum of

Care Reform (CCR), which charts California’s

movement away from congregate care and toward

placing children in a family-like setting with foster

families or relatives.

Under CCR all County operated shelters have

implemented changes pursuant to guidelines from

California Department of Social Services’ Interim

Licensing Standards (ILS).

August 2018 – BJMRH was licensed as a 10-Day

Temporary Shelter Care Facility (TSCF) by California

Department of Social Services through Community

Care Licensing.

24 Hour Facility Shift work – 3 Shifts

• 6am-2pm

• 2pm-10pm

• 10pm-6am

New Staff to Child Ratio Per Interim Licensing

Standards

1 Staff per 4 children during the hours of 7am to

10pm

1 staff to 6 children during the night hours of 10pm

to 7am

Intake Process - Asses the child’s immediate needs, medical clearance if applicable.

Physicals and Dental Needs - To be scheduled with local health care providers.

Mental health and developmental assessments.

Child continues to attend school of origin.

Follow up appointments -Medical, dental, Behavioral Health, visitations with family.

Child and Family Team meetings with all family members and natural support systems.

ILS Guidelines issues by California Department of

Social Services (CDSS) outline specific services to be

provided to children, training requirements for staff,

reporting requirements, and newly implemented staff

to child ratios.

ILS further describes how CDSS will develop a

legislative report no later than January 1, 2021. The

report will include the following data:• Number of children and youth served by the shelters

• Characteristics of children residing at these facilities

• Whether there is a continued need for the licensing and operation of

the shelters

10-Day Overstay Report:

• The number of days the child has been at facility

• Reason for the child’s overstay (barriers)

• Steps taken to identify placement, including any next steps

Quarterly Data Reports

• Children’s demographics

• Date of admission/discharge

• Length of stay at facility

• Reason for shelter usage

• Barriers to placement, and barriers to placement causing stay

to exceed ten (10) calendar days if applicable

• Child’s next placement

9 Counties in California have transitioned into a TSCF: Imperial, Kern, Orange, Placer, San Diego, San Joaquin, Solano, San Mateo and Sonoma.

California Emergency Shelter Director’s Association (CESDA) Meetings.

Provider Meetings hosted by Children’s Residential Regional Office.

CDSS Licensing Program Analyst assigned to BJMRH.

Great Communication with Southern Area shelters – We all experience same barriers to placement, collaborate in problem solving, share Trauma Informed training.

In January 2017 The Resource Family Approval (RFA) program was

implemented in California. RFA is a statewide foster caregiver

approval process for all caregivers (related and non-related). The

RFA program has a single approval standard that replaces the

previous multiple processes for licensing foster family homes,

approving relatives and non-relative extended family members

(“NREFMs”).

RFA creates a framework for all families, including relative and

NREFM caregivers, called "resource families" to receive the same

information, training and opportunities for support. A resource

family completes one approval process, and once approved, may

choose to provide care on a short- or long-term basis.

Barriers To Implementation

• If the caregiver did not have any children placed in the home during the calendar year of 2017, their license or approval was forfeited by operation of law on January 1, 2018. In Imperial County there were 24 homes whose licenses were forfeited.

• Relatives must go through same process, feedback is that it is intrusive, training hours, and long process.

• Written Directives continue to change (currently WD Version 6) which at times makes it difficult to streamline processes, practice, policy.